Freshly unearthed footage casts doubt on Verstappen's Spanish GP penalty

Immediately after the conclusion of the ninth Grand Prix of 2025, the onboard footage from Max Verstappen was unavailable to all TV analysts. Therefore, Sky Sports, F1TV, and Viaplay used the cockpit footage from George Russell and the external views to interpret the situation.

From these images, there was a clear conclusion was drawn that Verstappen was at fault for the incident, with the footage showing that Verstappen slowed down to give Russell the spot back, only to accelerate again and collide with Russell mid-corner, giving himself a ten-second penalty to drop him from P5 down to P10, while also being handed three penalty points.

However, onboard footage from Max Verstappen has been released, and that has been the cause for some doubt and debate amongst fans.

While the majority initially believed the penalty was justified, Verstappen's onboard footage shows that he did steer into the turn, something that was initially not thought, meaning that many fans have reacted by saying Russell is to blame for steering into the Dutchman.

However, this overlooks the fact that Verstappen initially slowed down for the turn, and Russell could assume that Verstappen would not be in the corner. That's why Russell steered in. Verstappen decided to accelerate again, as can be heard in the footage, therefore surprising Russell at the corner.

Although Verstappen steered into the corner, it can still be determined that the four-time world champion is primarily to blame for this incident, resulting in his ten-second time penalty and the three penalty points he received.

As a result, Verstappen now has eleven penalty points and is just one penalty point away from a race ban. The first two penalty points of Verstappen will not expire until June 30, 2025, meaning if any penalty points are collected at the Canadian and Austrian Grands Prix, he will take a one-race suspension.

After those two penalty points have been removed, his next points will only be removed at the end of October, meaning the 27-year-old will have to be careful once more to keep a suspension out of view.